The latest press release from Matawa First Nations Management is appealing for support efforts to continue for the people of Nibinamik First Nation.

This press release about the community and the relief efforts is available on-line for everyone to read.

• Press Release # 9 - September 23

Efforts continue to coordinate the support systems required to assist the people of Nibinamik First Nation with teams working together from across the region. All donations and offers of assistance are appreciated. It is important that we work together to ensure the community receives the best possible care today and over the next few months.

Donations can be sent to:

Matawa First Nation Management - Nibinamik Emergency Fund
233 South Court Street
Thunder Bay, ON
P7B 2X9

If you have any questions, please call 807-344-4575 or 800-463-2249 and ask for Bruce Visitor, Director of Operations or Helen Franceschi, Finance Clerk.

The chances are probable that this special Sioux Lookout lady may have knitted you a baby bonnet, or your baby’s bonnet or your grandchild’s or even great grandchild’s baby bonnet. Yes, it’s Peggy Sanders we are talking about.

Mrs. Sanders is celebrating her 80^th birthday and as we would like to honour this special milestone birthday, Wawatay Radio is going to have a birthday party over the air waves.

Please join Florence Woolner, Ennis Fiddler and Garnet Angeconeb as they host this special birthday party on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 from 9 p.m. to 10:20 p.m.

We will have 80 minutes of good radio to mark Mrs. Sanders’ 80 years of life.

You can call in to wish Mrs. Sanders a personal Happy Birthday Wish - she will at the WRN studio that evening starting at 9:00 p.m.

Please join us for the birthday party!

Three more press releases from Matawa First Nations Management provide the latest information about the situation and support required by the people in Nibinamik First Nation.

The latest press releases about the community and the work are now available on-line for everyone to read.

• Press Release # 6 - September 17
• Press Release # 7 - September 18
• Press Release # 8 - September 19

Efforts continue to coordinate the support systems required to assist the people of Nibinamik First Nation with teams working together from across the region. All donations and offers of assistance are appreciated. It is important that we work together to ensure the community receives the best possible care today and over the next few months.

Donations can be sent to:

Matawa First Nation Management - Nibinamik Emergency Fund
233 South Court Street
Thunder Bay, ON
P7B 2X9

If you have any questions, please call 807-344-4575 or 800-463-2249 and ask for Bruce Visitor, Director of Operations or Helen Franceschi, Finance Clerk.

A Good Man Moves On.

On Saturday September 14, 2003 Mike Nothing passed away in Sioux Lookout after a lengthy illness.

Services were held for family and friends in Sioux Lookout at the Sioux Lookout Funeral chapel.  The burial service will be held in Bearskin Lake First Nation on Wednesday. His wife Susannah predeceased him in November 1997.  I was fortunate to be able to attend a service for Mike along with many friends and family in Sioux Lookout this past Monday.

Mike was from the community of Bearskin Lake. I first met him in 1977 when I went to the community as a Hudson’s Bay clerk (manager trainee).  Even though we had age gap, cultural differences and a language barrier, we worked through all these and Mike not only became my father-in-law, but an elder (role model), and a friend to me.  Mike was probably one of the most honest and straightforward individuals that I have ever known.  As one of his daughters spoke during Monday’s service I remembered receiving a gift of a t-shirt about 15 years ago from her that stated… “Everyone is entitled to my opinion” and I laughed to myself thinking that the same could be said of Mike as well.  He had his ways…and he was a very determined man.  When Mike left us, he didn’t quit living, he just decided he was moving on and no one was going to talk him out of it.

Well he’s gone to a better place and as Rev. Susan Barclay stated in her message...Mike has gone to the place where God has prepared many rooms for our afterlife.  I know that Mike’s room or mansion will have state of the art conference-call telephones so he can discuss all the important issues with his many friends and business associates in the “big city”.  Just about every picture of Mike that I have in my photo albums has him pictured with a telephone in hand.  Certainly every time I visited his home in Bearskin Lake or Sioux Lookout, Mike would be engaged in the most important conversations.  

In the early days when I lived in Bearskin Lake there was no TV, VCR, or electricity in the reserve homes.  Other than music, the telephone was the main piece of technological entertainment available and in 2003 that invention was still Mike’s favorite pastime.  

It was only about a week ago that I erased his latest message on my answering machine as we all do when our message space gets used up.  Everyone that knows Mike should be able to relate exactly to what I am talking about.

One of my favorite memories of Mike is the summer my family vacationed in Bearskin Lake and I fixed up his car and his truck with him supervising.  Mike taught me how to fix carburetors and fuel lines with pieces of plastic, glue, and snare wire.  Another one is the time in Sioux Lookout is when we explored logging roads for a full day unsuccessfully looking for a missing moose hide.   Talk about a “wild moose” (hide) chase.

Back in the early days, Bearskin Lake was part of the Big Trout Lake band, so before they had Reserve Status, Mike was the councilor for the entire community… that in my understanding would be equivalent today to the role of chief.  Mike then became the driving force in establishing Bearskin’s own Reserve status.

Later, he started a store in Bearskin Lake called “Bearskin Lake Variety” to help the people have a locally run store and to make a good living for his family.  Mike had a neat store stocked with very effective high demand products and I remember enjoying the salami and fresh bread Mike flew in.  We made it a regular routine to buy some from the store and have a mini-feast.  He bought furs and one year made $150,000 profit while still paying good prices to the local trappers.  In fact, I bought fur myself for about 16 years…but I recall that Mike had people from all over the north selling to him because of his good prices.

However, the very next year Green Peace started to boycott the fur business and their misguided actions spelled the end of the fur business…and this caused Mike to suffer a big financial loss.  Mike had given away most of his money to others as he usually did to help people out.  I remember his “shaver” was a burning cigarette (which I though was pretty cool) in the old days before BIC became a staple.  Later when the community started the Bearskin Lake Consumer’s COOP store, Mike closed the family store so that the community store would be able to grow.  This is the way Mike lived…he was a very committed servant to his community many times at his own expense.   When he closed his store, he had about $30,000 of customer debt on tab, which he “lost”.  In today’s dollars that would be at least $100,000.  

Mike later sold his building to Pastor Ziggy Beardy for a nominal amount so that the group of believers could have a church building to hold services in.  Mike himself spent a lot of time in prayer and he felt at home in the Anglican Church.  I am glad that Mike has ended his earth journey to be with His Savior and is now united with departed family and friends.  I am glad that we all have many fond memories of an extraordinary man who was a role model for the community, family, and his peers.  My prayers are given to all who are affected by his passing.  He truly was a man’s man…but I think Mike had a little help from the Lord.

Eric Kudaka
Thunder Bay

Matawa First Nations Management is coordinating the relief and support systems for the families and friends in Nibinamik First Nation. Since the tragic air plane crash on September 11, help and donations have been flowing into the community.

Efforts to coordinate the support systems required to assist the people of Nibinamik First Nation are being made by teams from across the region. All donations and offers of assistance are appreciated. It is important that we work together to ensure the community receives the best possible care today and over the next few months.

A series of press releases and a fact sheet about the community is now available on-line for everyone to read.

• Fact Sheet about Nibinamik First Nation and the days following the accident
• Press Release # 1 - September 12
• Press Release # 2 - September 14
• Press Release # 3 - September 15
• Press Release # 4 - September 15
• Press Release # 5 - September 16

Donations can be sent to:

Matawa First Nation Management - Nibinamik Emergency Fund
233 South Court Street
Thunder Bay, ON
P7B 2X9

If you have any questions, please call 807-344-4575 or 800-463-2249 and ask for Bruce Visitor, Director of Operations or Helen Franceschi, Finance Clerk.

Equay-wuk (Women's Group) has received extended funding from the Aboriginal Healing Foundation to restore parenting skills lost due to the legacy of physical and sexual abuse experienced by many in residential schools. The project will be completed in March, 2005.

The goals of the project include:

• the development of a resource centre on parenting for use by Aboriginal women and their families from Northwestern Ontario First Nation communities. Equay-wuk will ensure these culturally appropriate resources on parenting will be available to individuals and communities through our resource library or on our web site.
• the parenting support program will also continue to facilitate parenting workshops at the request of the community during the duration of the two year project. We will make one visit per community during the duration of the project. Workshop topics will include parenting, child development, family healing, personal life management issues and other topics of interest to the community.
• the development of culturally appropriate Native parenting curriculum. This curriculum will be left with the communities for their use. Equay-wuk are planning on providing Train the Trainer workshops to interested individuals once the curriculum is completed.

Equaywuk will establish and maintain linkages with organizations, agencies and communities to benefit survivors and descendants of residential schools who are participating in the program.

The expected results of the Parent Support Program are to strengthen parenting skills and provide support to youth, parents, grandparents and communities in Northwestern Ontario in a culturally appropriate, positive way. Parents will be provided with opportunities to explore positive parenting techniques by facilitating workshops related to parenting. Resources on parenting will be available to individuals and communities through the resource library and on our web site.

New Staff for the Parent Support Program

Profile of Lorraine Kenny, Parent Support Worker

I am survivor of Residential School. When I was 5 years old, I went to Pelican Lake Indian Residential School. In Grade 7, I got transferred to Shingwauk Residential School in Sault Ste. Marie. Then in Grade 8, I ended up in Cecilia Jeffrey Residential School in Kenora. I am now able to share how this experience impacted my life; my life with my siblings; and my family life. Today, I can say I am happy to be where I am in my life in spite of all the challenging and difficult events that happened.

My personal experience with parenting includes sharing this parenting journey with my husband and four children, three girls and one boy. They now range in age from 25 years to 16 years. The journey with our children has been filled with many challenges and at the same time, we have been able to create many wonderful memories together as a family. I am now a Kokum to a darling granddaughter age 4½ years and an absolutely adorable 11 month old grandson.

My work experience for the past twenty years or so has been in community development in various capacities. Since 1990, my main area of interest has been in the learning and sharing of positive parenting skills. Which brings me to this current position of Parent Support Worker here at Equay-wuk. I look forward to talking with you about your parenting journey.

Profile of Liza Angeconeb, Parent Support Program Assistant

Hi! Everyone, I would like to introduce myself, My name is Liza Angeconeb. I grew up in Sandy Lake. My maiden name is Kakakegumick. I moved to Lac Seul about 14 years ago when I met my wonderful husband. We have three wonderful children, one boy 14 and two girls 10, 7. As of June 18, 2003 I started working for Equay-wuk (Woman’s Group) as the Parenting Support Program Assistant. Although I didn’t directly experience the residential school, my mother and my husband did. I can see the impact it had on their lives.

We can be contacted at:

Equay-wuk (Women’s Group)
Box 1781, 16 Fourth Ave, Sioux Lookout, ON P8T 1C4
Email: parentsupport@knet.ca
Tel 807-737-2214
Tollfree 1-800-261-8294
Fax 807-737-2699
website: www.equaywuk.ca

Wawatay News has posted a news story on the tragic plane crash at Nibinamik on our web site at www.wawatay.on.ca.

Also posted are related messages from National Chief Phil Fontaine expressing his condolences and the Matawa tribal council's Nibinamik Support Fund efforts.

We plan to update the coverage as new information is received. Everyone is invited to send their messages to the families and friends affected by this tradegy.

Special Church services in Sioux Lookout September 26, 27, 28, 2003 at the Legion Hall.

Featured singers are the Philadelphia Gospel Band from

Pequis, Manitoba (Curtis Choken), David Harper (Wpg),

Hank Williams (Shoal Lk), Lynda Beardy (Sioux Lkt).

The preacher will be Lott Thunder (Wpg) and Justin Free

(St. Catherines). Services start @ 7:00 nitely, everyone welcome.

Information call: 737-4630 and 737-4166

North Caribou Lake First Nation will be hosting their annual Family week (Hunters festival) on the week of September 15-19. Many activities are being planned for the week long festivities. With the planned dances and feasts, the organizers are expecting a huge turnout.While anticipation fills the air throughout the community, many are hoping to get some fresh moose meat for the gatherings. The wild meat will be one of the many foods being cooked at the traditional grounds. The event will be held near the ball diamond where a little league baseball tournament will be held the following weekend.

We plan to video stream from the Wapekeka SOS Conference from 6:00 to 9:00 pm today (Friday).  The performance will be by Moccasin Joe (Comedian) and Wilma Pelly (Elsie Tsa Che) from North of 60.

Also, we may have a special appreance by someone who snuck into the community. SO listen on Wawatay starting 7:00 and watch video stream starting 6:00 pm,

Also, listen to CBC Radio today at 4:45 - 5:00 pm for special interviews.

Visit http://wapekeka.firstnation.ca for pictures from the conference and to leave your comments in our guestbook.